Neesa Hart - Her Passionate Pirate

Cora shook her head. “What’s making me nervous is you. International superstar, renowned scientist, sexiest man on the face of the planet—and you’re trying to seduce me. One part of my brain keeps screaming yes, while the other part keeps telling me this can’t be for real.”

While the idea of her saying ‘yes’ was quickly working its way through his blood, and having a predictable effect on his libido, the sincerity of her doubt rang through. “Why not?”

“Are you kidding? You could have any woman in the world—”

“There’s only one I want at the moment.”

“See, there it is. Why in the world would you say something like that?”

“Why do I want you? Are you serious?”

“Of course I’m serious. I’m a reasonably attractive, educated woman. And I can’t quite figure out why ordinary Cora Prescott has extraordinary Rafael Adriano in hot pursuit.”

Dear Reader,

Happy Holidays! Everyone at Harlequin American Romance wishes you joy and cheer at this wonderful time of year.

This month, bestselling author Judy Christenberry inaugurates MAITLAND MATERNITY: TRIPLETS,QUADS & QUINTS, our newest in-line continuity, with Triplet Secret Babies. In this exciting series, multiple births lead to remarkable love stories when Maitland Maternity Hospital opens a multiple birth wing. Look for Quadruplets on the Doorstep by Tina Leonard next month and The McCallum Quintuplets (3 stories in 1 volume) featuring New York Times bestselling author Kasey Michaels, Mindy Neff and Mary Anne Wilson in February.

In The Doctor’s Instant Family, the latest book in Mindy Neff’s BACHELORS OF SHOTGUN RIDGE miniseries, a sexy and single M.D. is intrigued by his mysterious new office assistant. Can the small-town doctor convince the single mom to trust him with her secrets—and her heart? Next, temperatures rise when a handsome modern-day swashbuckler offers to be nanny to three little girls in exchange for access to a plain-Jane professor’s house in Her Passionate Pirate by Neesa Hart. And let us welcome a new author to the Harlequin American Romance family. Kathleen Webb makes her sparkling debut with Cindrella’s Shoe Size.

Enjoy this month’s offerings, and make sure to return each and every month to Harlequin American Romance!

Wishing you happy reading,

Melissa Jeglinski

Associate Senior Editor

Harlequin American Romance

Her Passionate Pirate

Neesa Hart

www.millsandboon.co.uk

Before you start reading, why not sign up?

Thank you for downloading this Mills & Boon book. If you want to hear about exclusive discounts, special offers and competitions, sign up to our email newsletter today!

SIGN ME UP!

Or simply visit

signup.millsandboon.co.uk

Mills & Boon emails are completely free to receive and you can unsubscribe at any time via the link in any email we send you.

Neesa Hart lives in historic Fredericksburg, Virginia. She publishes contemporary romance under her own name, and historical romance as Mandalyn Kaye. An avid theater buff and professional production manager, she travels across the U.S. producing and stage managing original dramas. Her favorite to date? A children’s choir Christmas musical featuring the Pirates of Penzance. She loves to hear from her readers, and can be reached at her Web site: http://www.neesahart.com.

HARLEQUIN AMERICAN ROMANCE

843—WHO GETS TO MARRY MAX?

903—HER PASSIONATE PIRATE

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thirteen

Epilogue

Dearest,

How I missed you tonight! Father had guests—the most tedious of gentlemen, and I wished so to look across the table and find you smiling at me. The winds were high last night, bringing, as always, thoughts of you. I lay upon my small bed, willing the currents to bring you to my side. How my heart longs for you, dearest. In the night, I strain my ears, hoping against all reason to hear that most beautiful of sounds—the slap of your saber against our back stairs as you mount them in your haste to reach me. I never would have believed that I could yearn so desperately, nor ache so much, for the touch of another. But from my first glimpse of you—with your dashing ways, your fine physique and your magnificence—I fell completely under your spell. Come quickly, dearest. I need you so.

Lovingly yours,

Abigail

21 April 1861

Abigail Conrad, with her undiluted admiration for her pirate lover, was on to something.

Definitely on to something, Cora Prescott decided as she surveyed the man standing at the back of her lecture hall. “Fine physique,” indeed.

Deliberately she pulled her gaze from Rafael Adriano’s unbelievably magnetic presence and made herself concentrate on her students. “I’m sorry, Ms. Grimes,” she said to the college girl who’d just spoken. “What was your question?”

“Well—” Cathleen Grimes leaned forward to press her point “—I wanted to know why you think that the warrior/ romantic hero is the definitive women’s fantasy.”

Turn around and look, Cora thought as she deliberately avoided the temptation to glance at Adriano again. She cleared her throat, instead. “The warrior/romantic embodies what women both want and admire in the opposite sex.”

“Like Don Juan?” the student asked.

“Or Robin Hood?” another student added.

Cora nodded. “Precisely. He represents a patriarchal view of the world. He is the king of his own domain. The medieval lord ruled his keep. The duke or earl held responsibility for his entire estate. The Americanized version—heroes like Zorro, Superman or the Lone Ranger—was created to embody the myth of the solitary warrior. He’s strong, independent and heroic. But despite this image, he puts aside his warrior instincts for the sake of a woman.”

Another of her students leaned back in her chair. “Doesn’t that play into the woman-needs-saving mentality? You know, the Cinderella complex?”

“No.” Cora shook her head. “In these stories, the woman does the saving. While he may rescue her physically, she rescues him emotionally. The emotional impact of the story is always given more weight than the external plot.”

“So she redeems him?” the student asked. At that question, Adrian gave Cora a pointed look.

“Yes. Precisely.”

Another student offered, “Like the pirate fantasy. He’s this corrupted guy, and she comes along and makes him change his wicked ways.”

Cathleen Grimes laughed. “Only after he has his wicked way.”

The quip sent the students into a round of free conversation and increasingly ribald comments. Adriano shot Cora an amused look and braced his shoulder against the door frame.

“But, Dr. Prescott,” one girl said, “I mean, really, isn’t that just a bit farfetched?”

“It could be.” Cora propped her hip on the edge of her desk. “But that doesn’t mean the fantasy isn’t still very potent.”

“Do you think that explains,” asked the same student, “why some women go for that scruffy look—you know, the long hair, three-day beard, that kind of thing?”